Letters: Not your father's Republican O.C.

Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh doesn't get it. His insinuation that the values of hard work, family and education are Republican ones is insulting to those who voted for President Obama. Assuming that the weaker candidate lost because so many people do not hold to these values reflects a total lack of understanding of this country.

Perhaps Baugh should look inward for the real reasons the Republicans lost. He should consider fairness, education and freedom from government interference in peoples' personal lives.

A good indication of how intelligent people reject so much of the Republican agenda is the fact that the voters in Irvine, a city that isn't predominantly Latino, preferred Obama over Mitt Romney. Perhaps the reason the Republican candidate lost is simply because most voters did not trust him enough.

David Coulson

Huntington Beach

This story about Republicans in Orange County is a microcosm of the problems facing the national GOP.

Back in 1960, I attended a campaign rally for Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential nominee, in Los Angeles. In a stadium of thousands of people, I did not see one face of color other than white.

Now, following the Nov. 6 election, the political scenes have not changed. In Chicago, the crowd of Obama supporters on election night was a great diversity of color; in Boston, the crowd awaiting Romney was mostly white.

Several states have made it more difficult for minorities to vote and immigrants to live freely. Recent history portrays the GOP as unfriendly to Latinos and other minorities. This is their problem.